Huamihas recently announced a new iteration of its flagship sports watch. Called Amazfit Verge Smart Watch, it comes with the usual fitness tracking sensors, a heart rate monitor capable of identifying health issues, NFC support built-in GPS.

Design & Appearance

The latest watch in the Amazfit series is actually slightly smaller (diameter 43mm versus 46mm), slimmer (12.6mm versus 13.9mm) and quite a bit lighter (46 grams versus 70 grams) than Stratos, making it more suitable for both sexes. Its AMOLED screen is better, making it readable both indoors and out. Measuring 1.3 inches (360 x 360-pixel resolution) the display is protected against the elements with Gorilla Glass 3.

Hardware

The list starts off with a 1.2 Gh dual-core processor designed to work with the proprietary operating system, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage that can be used for music, a mic and speaker for calls from your wrist. There are a GPS and GLONASS module, WiFI and Bluetooth 4.0. In terms of sensors, you’ll find an accelerometer, heart rate sensor, gyroscope, geomagnetic sensor, ambient light sensor, and an atmospheric pressure sensor.

Battery

The Lithium Ion 390 mAh battery can keep everything ticking along for 5 days on a single charge which is impressive especially if you take specs into consideration. This is also long enough for you not to be thinking about charging all the time and compares well with the likes of Garmin and Polar.

Functions

This is primarily a timepiece for the active types so its no surprise there are a number of sports modes to choose from. This includes running (outdoors and indoors), trail running, walking, mountaineering, tennis, skiing, football, cycling (outdoors and indoors) and elliptical. Don’t look for swimming, though, it’s not there. Unlike Stratos (5 ATM), the whole thing is only IP68 certified for water-resistance, probably to allow for the mic and speaker.

Features

The built-in GPS sensor works well. Acquiring the satellite signal is quick and easy and the distance calculation between the Garmin and Amazfit watch was only a few meters apart per kilometer. The fact that you have both built-in GPS and offline storage for music means Verge allows for true phone free running. As you would expect this includes notifications for calls, messages, calendar alerts, emails, and other apps. You’ll get direct access to live weather forecasts, stopwatch functionality, compass, alarms and find my phone.

Verdict

What works in its favor is that it’s smaller so more suitable for both sexes, cheaper, it has a better screen, it has a heart rate monitor capable of identifying health issues, and it has the ability to take phone calls via your wrist thanks to the built-in mic and speaker. But it doesn’t feel as elegant, it doesn’t have an always-on screen, there is no support for swimming or as many performance stats.